Embers
by thir13enth
Summary: Suki had thought it was all over after Ozai was defeated, but it seemed the following Fire Lord was even more trouble. Called to his side as debt of being an old friend, Suki is constantly challenged about where her allegiance lies: with her nation or with her new home, for forced peace or for diplomatic war, as Sokka's loyal girlfriend or as Zuko's trustworthy confidant. Suzuki
1. Chapter 1

**So, this is my first time in this ship! I thought I'd give Suki/Zuko a try (what is that, Suko? Zuki? Suzuki?) since I think this ship deserves at least some thought, especially with The Promise trilogy. Anyway, the comic had a Suki/Zuko type of a moment in there and well…here goes nothing. **

**I'll fill in what information is needed—you should read the comics if you have the chance (yes, you can find them online for free!), but for this story, I'm not going to be making any references that someone that hasn't read them isn't going to get. **

**Again, this piece is going to be purely experimental and I'm making this story realistically sound as possible—so I hope you enjoy or at least tell me what you think!**

**All mistakes are mine or the dog's—he just loves to inconsiderately step all over my keyboard in search of attention.**

**Well, without further ado:**

* * *

**Chapter One:**

**behind a cracked smile lies the future of a falling empire**

It had been a while since anything larger than island disputes called on the Kyoshi Warriors, and with the lack of much excitement, the female fighters were ecstatic when a red-tailed hawk delivered their next mission in a scroll written by an anxious hand.

She was as brief and direct with her words as ever:

_Hi Tylee,_

_I hope you and the other Kyoshi warriors are doing well. I have a favor to ask—if you guys can come over to the Fire Nation and help guard Zuko._

_Just the other night, someone had broken into the palace, the sixth of these types of attempts on his life. He hasn't been able to sleep well and his guards are incompetent._

_You guys are the only ones I trust to keep him safe; please come if you can. I'll ensure that you have accommodations once you're here._

_Mai_

After Ty Lee read this aloud, the rest of the Warriors surrounding her clapped at the prospect of actually being recognized in a foreign country, murmuring that they should totally take up the opportunity to increase the previous earth-native Avatar's legacy.

Their leader couldn't have agreed more—

"He's a good friend of the Avatar," Suki reasoned, nodding her head.

And she didn't mention it, but the Fire Lord's death would probably mean another war, and having fought so closely with the people that had spent their pre-adolescent years to finally establish some sense of world peace, she wasn't willing to let their efforts to go waste in another hell bent race for who was to be the next Fire Lord.

She had personal reasons to go as well. While she didn't know the firebender that well, Zuko was a good friend of her boyfriend and there was definitely a higher chance of being able to see Sokka if she hung around the palace where so many official decisions would have to be made. At a time like this, she reasoned, would no doubt involve the Avatar, which would consequently involve _his _girlfriend, which would with _her _brother being dragged along in the whole mess.

"We're probably only going to take a few of us to the Fire Nation," Suki declared. "We have to at least leave some of us here to take care of the island."

"Oh Suki! I_ have _togo! You _have _to let me go!" Ty Lee exclaimed, calling dibs.

No one was going to argue with the Fire Nation-native not going back to her homeland, so Suki was quick to put herself on the list. "Okay," she said. "Ty Lee and I will be going—we can probably bring along three other girls."

"Yes, five of us over there should be more than enough," Kira affirmed, her calm and melodic voice in approval. "I'll stay here," she volunteered.

Su Lin, Riza, and Jena offered to go along with Suki and Ty Lee, and the five of them made arrangements to leave as soon as possible.

"Hey Kira," Suki called, once the other warriors had been dismissed.

Said girl turned, facing her leader with her ever stoic face. "What's up?"

"Thanks for stepping forward to stay here; otherwise everyone would have wanted to come along with us to the Fire Nation, you know?" The auburn-haired leader smiled at her comrade.

Kira shrugged off the compliment. "It's not a big deal—I'm not that much of a traveler anyway."

"And especially since I really trust you to do a good job taking care of Kyoshi Island and the Erath Kingdom while I'm gone," Suki added, placing her hand on the shorter girl's shoulder.

Kira might not have been the oldest, at age 14, but Suki knew that she was mature well beyond her years, holding a nonchalant air—"a dark blue aura," Ty Lee had observed once. The girl, who wore her wavy waist-length raven-black hair in a high ponytail, was composed and sharp-minded, not to mention that she was a deadly swordsmaster, practically unstoppable with her katana. She was a prodigy, barely needing to be taught any techniques and often coming up with her own graceful fighting styles.

Suki wouldn't have been surprised if Kira ended up being her successor, and if the future of the Warriors were in that girl's small yet capable hands, Suki would be satisfied.

"Whatever happens here while I'm gone, you should decide for yourself what to do—I'm sure I can rely on you to do what's best for the Warriors."

Kira nodded. "So...how long are you guys going to expect to be out there?"

"We'll be back once everything is settled down," Suki reassured her. "It won't be too long."

But at her heart, she knew that was closer to lie than truth.

There was going to be a hell of a lot more issues than just some simple body-guarding.

Zuko's life was on the line.

And with it, so was peace.

**divider**

"Six attempts on his life?" the gymnast surmised, worriedly, while doing her morning stretches. With her feet on the ground, she bent completely backwards, placing her hands on the ship's wooden deck before flipping her body into a perfect handstand. "I didn't think things back at home were so bad."

Suki had come out to take in some fresh saltwater air, unable to sleep in anticipation of what the five of them would be expected to do-keeping the Fire Lord's life was a lot of pressure and she still wasn't sure what the situation was like in the Fire Nation. "Was it always this way even during Ozai's reign?"

Ty Lee performed a few vertical push-ups before hopping back onto her feet again and placing her hands on her hips. "Fire Lord Ozai was different," she explained without hesitation. "He ruled over a population that had been loyal to the royal family for years. Zuko is ruling over people that have realized that the monarchy had been wrong to oppress the other nations after all this time. After the Avatar, there's not much trust left in Fire Nation for their leader."

"Hm," the Kyoshi Warrior leader breathed, quieting a deep sigh.

"You know," Ty Lee continued. "I never really thought about how much the country has changed. I guess...I was just happy for the Fire Nation because I trust Zuko to run it well. But I never thought about how much trouble he could have after the war was over."

Suki turned her hazel eyes towards her flexible companion. "Do you miss the Fire Nation?"

"Of course," she replied while in a mid-air cartwheel. "I mean, I love my new home on Kyoshi Island—you guys are like my family now and I've really been able to find myself while with hanging out with you guys, but I left a whole childhood in the Fire Nation."

But then the usually chipper girl grew quiet for a moment before continuing, wistfully. "I guess if anything I don't really miss the Fire Nation right now—I just miss the good old times. And it sounds strange, but my good old times were the wartime, when my closest friends and I were still together." While practicing a few no-handed cartwheels, she added, "I got to see my friends all the time, and it was always fun. We barely even acknowledged that the war was going on. And I got to see Zuko practically every day."

Suki didn't answer, but she couldn't deny the irony of having a nostalgic childhood during a time of great fighting. She herself had made some of the best friends before the war ended, and a lot of the things that she did in the past couple of years completely turned her life around.

"I guess wartime is easier than peace," Ty Lee suddenly proposed, out of the blue. "At least in war you don't have to worry about what everyone else thinks—you just have to win. After the war, you have sacrifice and negotiate and make deals with people. Fighting is just one-sided, straightforward, direct, and not as complicated as keeping peace."

Suki wasn't sure if that was the way to think about it, but things did seem a lot more complicated now these days. Everything had seemed to be over, but really, things were just beginning to erupt.

"Poor Zuko...everything is just crashing down on him after all he'd been through! And Azula—"

"His sister?" Suki suddenly remarked. The wicked blue lightning blades of their last encounter still haunted the Kyoshi Warrior. That female firebender had completely knocked the wind out of her—Suki was still a bit disgruntled at what an easy win she had made herself for the fire princess.

"Yeah," replied the other girl, not lingering on the fact that she had once fought alongside the Fire Lord's infamous sister.

"What about her?"

"Apparently, she ended up in a mental asylum...I haven't heard from her since, and I never dared to ask." Ty Lee suddenly sat down onto the ground, normal and looking contemplative. "I think I really just ran away from all the problems by joining you guys."

Suki didn't remind Ty Lee that they were on their way to heading right back into them.

**divider**

They didn't realize just how serious the problem was until they saw the heavy bags under his eyes.

"Zuko! You look so tired!" Ty Lee exclaimed, forgetting the formal greeting upon seeing her old friend and swallowing him up in her arms. "Have you been getting _any _sleep at all?! How are you doing?!"

The Fire Lord had changed a lot over the past month. Suki had last seen him only a few weeks ago, but the amount that his appearance had changed only struck her at that moment.

His clean-shaven face had completely shed its pre-pubescence, his jaw chiseled into a stern frown and his cheeks had begun to hollow out into the skeleton of a more mature man. His chin-length dark brown hair, adorning an elegant golden flame crown, was now properly cut, no longer needing to be brushed away with an annoyed hand. His eyes were still honey-amber, but they were now denser, weary, glistening no longer with childhood naivety but instead, jadedness. A wrinkle had seemed to permanently build itself onto his concerned forehead.

What distressed her most however, was that even through all the thick and heavy layers that he was required to wear as the Fire Nation's leader, she could still tell that his figure had grown considerably more lanky. Zuko had been extremely healthy and fit, and it was easy to see that he was slowly turning into a shell of the athletic youth he had used to be.

Zuko wasn't able to sidestep Ty Lee's embrace because she had pounced on him too quickly, but he reluctantly gave up the monarch impression he was supposed to preserve and dropped his arms around her as well.

A small smile cracked over his thin lips, a movement that Suki knew he hadn't done in the longest time.

"I'm doing fine, Ty Lee," he asserted, "and I hope you're doing even better than I am." He pulled himself away from her. "We'll save the reunion for another time though," he promised as his old friend stepped back with the rest of her Warrior comrades. His face reset into a stoic default that Suki figured he could have only developed after long nights of staring at legal documents.

The Fire Lord brought a fist up to an open palm, making a flame salute with his hands.

The Kyoshi Warriors uniformly replicated this, going down onto their knees in respect for his position.

"Kyoshi Warriors," he stated. "I'm sorry about the trouble, and I appreciate your willingness to come out here and help the Fire nation even though it is not your primary duty."

His adolescent years were little more than a year ago, but his voice had dramatically deepened, resonating with a restrained control and sounding like he had grown ten years when he was barely twice that amount in age.

"Ty Lee, Suki, Kyoshi Warriors," he continued. "I'm sorry I can't stay for long and personally inform you of everything. But I do want to tell you that my palace is completely open to you. While on duty here, you are considered close friends of royalty and will be treated as such. I have rooms set aside for your stay, however long that may be, and as honored guests, you should feel free to ask for any other accommodations that you might need."

"It is our honor to serve you, Fire Lord Zuko," Suki said, looking up at his golden eyes.

"I should hope so," he replied.

And though this was probably meant to be said with a wry smile, she didn't even see him make half an effort to curl his lip.

* * *

**I've introduced a few OC characters so far—they're not going to take over the entire story but they are going to be recurring so they were given names. :)**

**And yeah…the story started sorta slow, but I promise action in the next chapter so stick with me!**

**(And drop your thoughts!)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Thanks for the support, my readers! It really means a lot when I'm in this sort of experimental field! I was recently looking up the amount of Suzuki fics, and I think that there were like thirty-something to count!**

**This chapter's sorta short just like the one before it, but I'm thinking of later condensing the chapters into one once the story gets started. **

**Also, I know that the last book of The Promise is coming out later this month. Despite that, the direction the story is going to take isn't going to change—it was originally written as a fanfiction for the events to follow the second book. I've already seen a few excerpts from the book that were released already, and I can admit that my interpretation is substantially different from what the creators had in mind, lol! As a disclaimer, any sort of similarities that pop up are just coincidences!**

**Anyway, enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter Two:**

**chasing the sun, he neglects her heart for those of all the others**

They were quickly whisked away by some of the palace servants, the Fire Lord slipping away down a long narrow hallway without another word. And so, the Kyoshi Warriors were subsequently taken on a tour of the entire palace, becoming familiarized with all the security features that the opulent building offered.

Suki couldn't help her slightly agape mouth as they were led through the grandiose complex. This was definitely outside of her comfort zone. She had been in the Fire Nation before, but the only glimpse of the tropical country she had been given was behind prison bars at the Boiling Rock. With every step she took, she was rewriting her memories of the once enemy nation, receiving a very different impression of it through the veil of royalty.

_Hell, I might even come to like this place, _she thought to herself.

And as if the lavishness of the Fire Lord's home wasn't enough to leave Suki in awe, she was just left breathless at the very well moneyed state of the palace. Her home was a simple fishing port, a temporary stop full of traders and merchants, always with people coming and going, moving and changing. The finely detailed and monumental architecture that they were to be hosted in completely astounded her—so large, magnificent, and permanent that it would surely always be standing.

"This is amazing," she remarked softly to herself, but Ty Lee's sharp hearing heard her, and even the Fire Nation-native agreed:

"My family had always been close to royalty, but this is totally above my own life!"

"I'll never be able to live in a place like this."

"Well," replied her companion, "you technically are now, so enjoy it while you can!"

_While I can, huh?_

Ty Lee was being optimistic, thinking that they were only going to be there for a short while.

But that gut feeling was still chewing at Suki, who thought it more likely that the Warriors were going to be in the Fire Nation long enough for them to get past just enjoying the palace.

**divider**

It wasn't just the architecture Suki would have to get used to either, something she realized as her eyes turned as wide as the plates that were scattered all over the grand table. She could barely contain all the foods—many of which she had never seen before; what attracted her attention most was the tray of colorful fruits at the center, a true delicacy in her usual seafood-rice-and-legume diet.

One spot at the end of the table was empty.

Before any tongues were lifted to ask about the Fire Lord, his raven-haired counterpart, who had decided to join them for their first dinner, excused him.

"He skips meals a lot...busy," she said softly. "I'm sure he wouldn't mind if we went ahead and ate."

Ty Lee folded her arms over her chest before sitting cross legged, not caring for table etiquette and tired of sitting on her knees. "Well that isn't rude of him at all!" she deadpanned loudly, stretching back her arms. "Where is he?"

Mai fingered the edge of her plate, tracing circles over the porcelain. "I don't know," she replied, going ahead and taking a set of chopsticks in her hand.

"But he can't even just come down and say hi or something?"

"No," she firmly repeated.

Her old friend didn't seem to catch the hard edge at Mai's frustrated voice and continued, "Agni, does he always do that?"

Mai didn't answer, taking a few slices of meat from the serving plate in front of her.

**divider**

Suki eventually found him leaning over a wide table. Judging from the dark brown bangs that had fallen from his topknot and were now shadowing his face, he must have been standing there for a long time.

"Fire Lord Zuko," she said, shattering the silence.

He looked up briefly. "Hello Suki. Is everything being catered to your liking?"

"Yeah, very much so."

Geez, his gaze was painfully intense—it almost made her forget why she had even come to try to find him in the first place.

"You don't need anything?"

"No."

"So...you just want to talk to me?" he asked in a statement, with perhaps a bit of disbelief. Most conversations directed to him had probably up to this point ended with him rushing out of the room to attend to some other matter.

He looked so vulnerable, she stammered. "Uh, if you don't mind."

Zuko sighed, turning his face back to the table, and replied, "I'd love to, but we should save the conversation for later."

She wasn't about to lose her resolve. It wasn't right that his relationship with Mai was suffering while he was carrying the weight of the future on his shoulders.

"You haven't talked to Mai in a long time," she thus said.

He didn't react, and she stepped forward, continuing, "We're all concerned about you, Zuko."

The Fire Lord was still being unresponsive, so she walked right up to him to see what the hell could have been so much more important than his disintegrating relationship with his girlfriend at the moment.

But maybe she had spoken too soon, she realized upon seeing the complete map of the world that covered the table.

She didn't know it was the world at first, until she saw the four distinct colors, dividing the map up into territories—names of some that she knew. The words 'Kyoshi Island' pointed out a miniscule island at the border of a large brown block of land.

She had never really taken a look at the world like this before—she knew the world was large, but she hadn't realized just how much larger than her homeland it was. Her responsibilities were solely to the one island that she knew.

And her island was so small compared to the red shaded chain of islands at the corner of the map. The island world that she knew all her life was nothing compared to the sea of after-war

Even if she was the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors and therefore the head figure for the Avatar's legacy, that difference between the dot of a single island compared to the empire of fire represented how much liability the Fire Lord carried than her.

He watched her eyes graze the map for a while.

"You see this, Suki?" he finally responded. "Compared to this, I'm nothing to be worried about."

Her mouth involuntarily twisted. "You can't really expect to be able to do this all on your own."

He didn't hesitate: "I think that my title does."

Suki found nothing to retort from this.

"Look, I really appreciate everyone's concern, but there's a lot going on right now, and that's my priority," the firebender explained.

She was quiet for a moment and then repeated, "You should talk to Mai."

"I don't want to bring her into this," he said, visibly crumbling.

"She can help you. She's been at your side since the beginning of all this."

He closed his eyes and clenched his hands, lightly wrinkling the paper under his fists. "It's not her responsibility."

"That doesn't mean that she can't give you advice," Suki insisted. Seeing him shaking his head and denying her words already, she blurted, "She's worried about you, Zuko."

He switched the subject. "Did she ask you to talk to me?"

"No, I...came on my own accord," she said, taken aback.

"Then I'm going to ask you to stop troubling yourself."

**divider**

Suki watched the black, red and white paint cry off her face for a moment before wiping away the cold water off her skin. When she had turned the faucet shut, she suddenly realized that the sobbing was not coming from the running water and quickly stepped out of her room to the one right next door.

There weren't any tears, but there were several wrinkled foreheads and furrowed eyebrows, emotions Suki was not used to seeing on the usually expressionless raven-haired girl.

"I'm just so worried about him," said Mai, a frown clearly cut over her fair complexion. "He hasn't been able to sleep well and I'm so worried about his safety."

Ty Lee, who hadn't even begun to get ready for dinner, put her hands over Mai's shoulders. "But you did something about it, and now we're here. And I promise we'll keep him safe!"

Suki slowly joined them, sitting down on her knees on the mat beside the two of them.

"I knew that becoming a Fire Lord would be a lot more work," Mai continued, "but I wasn't expecting this at all!" She took a deep breath. "I just wish that I could help him, but he's not letting me help him and he's just distancing himself, just excusing himself...he's not answering any of my questions, accepting any of what I say.

"He keeps telling me that he's just fine all the time, but I know he's not and I know he isn't," she cried. "I don't know why he keeps everything to himself."

_I don't want to bring her into this._

She bit her lip back, remembering this from a former conversation, and didn't interrupt, wishing for Mai to completely spell out her thoughts.

She continued, "From the beginning...when he became Fire Lord, I was naïve enough to think that it was all over after the Hundred Year War."

"I think we all thought it was over," Ty Lee reassured her. Ty Lee hadn't even begun to take her makeup off for the night, choosing instead to comfort her old friend.

The distraught girl shook her head, angrily. "It's different," she said. "I was stupid enough to think that Zuko and I were just going to live happily for the rest of time. I neglected to realize that he had duties beyond his personal life." She put her face in her hands, muttering, "Agni..._six _assassination attempts on his life already."

"So...what happened during the last one?" Suki asked, slowly.

"He was attacked by a girl—the daughter of a nobleman from Yu Dao, Mayor Morishita," Mai answered. "He subsequently went to Yu Dao to figure things out—I don't know what happened beyond that."

"And that's when you called us over to bodyguard him, right?" Ty Lee concluded.

"I knew I could rely on you guys to keep him safe." And then almost as an afterthought, Mai added, "Thank you," before continuing, "And he's doing everything that he can. I don't know what he's doing, but I know at least that much...he's not the type to carelessly throw aside his own country."

"So you don't know _anything_ about what's happening?" asked Ty Lee, who was rather bothered already by the fact that Mai hadn't even known where Zuko was during dinner earlier.

"I've heard bits and pieces about something called the Harmony Restoration Movement..." she defended. "The Avatar is helping him establish it with the Earth King...but I heard rumors about a revolution happening in the Earth Kingdom itself too—I don't know," she admitted finally. "I did all the research I could, but Zuko doesn't even seem to trust his official advisors, let alone trust me!"

Suki couldn't leave the Fire Lord unrepresented when she had wasted a few moments of his time. "Maybe he just doesn't want to bring you into the whole mess," she suggested, adding the 'maybe' to soften her supposed suspicion.

Mai burst. "But I want to be part of that!" she sobbed, red rims at the bottom of her eyelids. "I _want _to be able to help him and figure out what's the next thing to do! And it's not that I want power—I just don't want him shouldering the world that his father left for him to bear alone! I want to help him carry the burden."

They could hear her heart whimper in the speechless moments afterwards.

"And...I just...if I had become Fire Lady—no, I'm just wrong for thinking this; but if I was the Fire Lady...I'd be able to help him since it'd be my responsibility too, right? If we had just married..." and she trailed off, rectifying herself in a bitter spit, "Ugh, this is just stupid—there wouldn't have been a way; I don't know what I'm even thinking."

The two Kyoshi Warriors exchanged a quick look and Ty Lee put on a strong smile, suggesting that Mai go back home and get some rest.

"It'll all work out," Ty Lee promised. "We're here now, and we can protect Zuko and we're here to help out as much as we can."

Suki pursed her lips, almost scolding the other girl for giving any sort of false hope.

But she settled it, thinking it was probably own self being too negative.

_As long as she can fall asleep to that, _she thought.

* * *

**I know Mai might seem OOC in this, but she's legitimately concerned about Zuko and it's not like she's a completely emotionless freak .**

**Anywho, hope you guys haven't found the story too terribly boring yet! (I'd hate to put a bad name to this pairing!)**

**So besides dropping a review, you guys should help me decide what I should make this weekend. It's a really hard decision; be warned!**

**Tiramisu or tres leches?**

**thir13enth**


	3. Chapter 3

**Again, thank you my beloved audience! It's been a while since I've updated but I'm actually well surprised that this story is getting any attention at all, especially because it's such a strange couple.** **Anyway, The Promise trilogy has now been completely released. I have to admit that I'm lightly dissatisfied by the ending—there weren't any plot twists or anything, but I guess it's understandable since we already know that the Legend of Korra has to come out of it.**

**Enjoy the update! :D**

* * *

**Chapter Three:**

**he curses his birthright, turning to a former enemy**

The moonlight cast weary shadows over the Fire Lord, who later that night retreated to his bedroom looking half distracted, causing Ty Lee to ask him if everything was fine, a question he dodged by bidding her a thank you and goodnight.

As he swiftly walked past the two of them, Suki noticed the edge of jutting bone towards the middle of his chest in the pull of his sleep robes.

He was growing lanky, and the strong bulky armor that the Fire Nation uniformed their leader with was just a façade telling lies to the public that their lord was in good health, when in fact, he was tiring to death.

Suki met her hazel eyes with Ty Lee's.

So would begin their guard shift, which would last until three in the morning before the two of them would switch out with Riza and Su Lin.

The two of them stood silently, watching the night sky, but after a couple of hours and once Suki deemed Zuko was fast asleep, she expressed her concern to Ty Lee.

"What do you think we should do?"

The other Kyoshi Warrior seemed slightly confused about what she was talking about. "About what?"

"You know..." Suki's voice trailed, trying to find the best words, "...about...everything."

"You mean about Mai and Zuko," directly stated the other girl, not speaking conspicuously at all.

"Yeah..."

Ty Lee didn't continue the conversation—Suki suspected that she wasn't able to think of an easy solution for the two of them either.

"I don't know," Ty Lee said finally. "I guess we can try to convince Zuko to talk to her more." But those were empty words; they both knew that was easier said than done.

After a moment, she added, "It's not the first time that they've had problems with their relationship, you know?"

Suki turned her head. "It's been like this before?"

"Actually I feel bad for them because it's not their fault their relationship gets screwed up," Ty Lee explained. "It's never because of personal issues, aside from the one time we were vacationing in Ember Island, but because of the war and Zuko's banishment. And now, it's because of him being the Fire Lord. They haven't really been able to enjoy the best time together because of all the political stuff going on."

Suki thought a bit, before letting out a soft sigh.

The Fire Lord had always had it hard, she realized. Katara and Aang, despite the troubles they experienced, were always going to be on the same side of war and could guarantee that whatever they do, they'd be fighting for the same reasons. And herself and Sokka included; no matter the distance between them, they were always going to be supporting each other.

But Zuko...he was torn between the Fire Nation and world peace, within his own family, within his own self.

"They're still making the best of it though," Ty Lee continued, as Suki quickly realized that she had drifted off into her own thoughts. "I think that it'll all work out in the end. It always does—they love each other too much to not."

Suki's question was sudden. She asked without thinking. "But you're concerned about Zuko yourself, aren't you? This is more than just a favor for Mai."

"Of course," admitted the brunette. "I knew Zuko ever since we were small. Mai and I were probably his closest childhood friends in the Fire Nation before he was exiled. We were always hanging out over there, Mai and I, because we thought the palace was so grand and Azula was our best friend. And I think Mai just wanted to hang out there to see Zuko as well."

Seeing Ty Lee's glistening eyes made Suki suspect something. "You have feelings for him, don't you?"

The other girl smiled, turning her brown eyes back to Suki. "I admit that I had at some point…but to be honest, Zuko was always the special one. I always knew—even from when we were a kid—that he was going to grow up to do great things."

Hearing her companion's story, Suki suddenly realized that even after getting to know Ty Lee and having worked alongside her for so long in Kyoshi Island she had neglected to ask the Fire Nation-native about her own country or her childhood. For some reason, the other warriors never brought up the issue either.

After another round of silence, Suki decided to change that.

"Are you going to visit your family while you're here?"

A rare frown crossed Ty Lee's lips. "I don't want to talk about my family."

When Suki had been staying at the orphanage, before she was adopted and trained by the Kyoshi Warriors (she liked to think that Avatar Kyoshi was her godmother), she had always wished for a place to call home and people to call mother and father.

But it looked more and more like having a family was just as bad as not having one.

"So why did _you _decide to come to the Fire Nation?" Ty Lee asked. "I mean, I wouldn't know, but do you know Zuko very well?"

"I'm friends with Aang," Suki explained simply. "And Zuko is one of Aang's closest friends. I—"

The door between the two Kyoshi Warriors suddenly opened, and a mess of brown hair poked out from beyond the doorframe.

"Do you hear anything?" he asked quickly.

Suki wasn't sure if she was more worried about his panicked tone of voice or about the fact that her chatter with Ty Lee might have driven him awake in the first place.

"No, Zuko. It's been quiet all night," she replied calmly.

"Honest to goodness, there hasn't been a peep!" the other girl chirped.

They were surprised when the Fire Lord stepped further out of the room, looking to the left and right. After a moment, he met their eyes briefly and explained, "I'm sorry. It's not that I don't trust you. I know the Kyoshi Warriors are the best guardsmen in the world."

"Guardswomen, you mean," Ty Lee corrected.

But at the moment, Zuko was facing Suki and hadn't seemed to hear Ty Lee. Suki noticed the time—Zuko had barely been in bed for two hours.

"Go back to sleep. You have to at least try," she thusly encouraged him.

"No. I'm going to get a drink of water."

"Do you need someone to escort you?" Suki took a step forward and reached an arm out to him.

"I'll be fine," he assured, his hands waving her own off. "The walk will do me some good."

Suki felt Ty Lee's eyes meet hers, and the two of them looked at each other with some mutual worry for the Fire Lord.

They watched his figure get swallowed up in the darkness of the corridor beyond them.

"He's always been like that," Ty Lee suddenly stated, turning her head towards Suki. "You know, doing everything himself."

_You see this, Suki? Compared to this, I'm nothing to be worried about._

Suki held his words to thought for a moment, weaving it through her mind. "Do you think," she asked, to no one in particular, "that if he had the choice, he wouldn't have been the Fire Lord?"

"If he had a choice?" the other Kyoshi Warrior asked. Her voice admitted, "Honestly I don't think he really has much of one…it was kinda all destined to fall on his shoulders."

Suki's mouth twisted, and she took her gaze back down the dark hall that he had walked into.

He returned later. Perhaps an hour or so later, but the two of them didn't say a word as his hunched over body slipped back into his bedroom.

**thenextday**

Rolling the silk over her shoulders, Suki still marveled at how the cool and impossibly smooth texture wrapped perfectly around her.

This was sleepwear? Geez, it was hard to imagine what other luxuries the royalty could afford for formal nights.

She yawned, wiping the night's sleep off her slowly awakening eyes. Throwing her feet to the bare hardwood floor, she stood up and accessed the lightweight fabric—completely unlike the heavy and sometimes irritating cotton that she was used to. Looking almost distastefully back at her warrior clothing, she couldn't see herself fitting her now spoiled skin back into the uniform.

Suki made her way to the door of her room, enjoying the gauzy billowing of the silk, making her way towards the kitchen pantry for some breakfast goodies. She skipped a bit, playing around with the royal pajamas.

A room to the left caught her attention however. She wasn't sure what the allure of it was, but the slight crack of the open door beckoned her to push it forward just a bit more…

And then she was inside of it, shelves of books surrounding her. A map of the entire expanse of the Fire Nation was propped up on the wall facing the door as she stepped into the study. Portraits of the previous Fire Lords were orderly placed around the room—she noticed that Zuko's face hadn't been added to the collection yet.

Briskly moving toward to the dusty spines of the catalog of books, she traced her finger over the binding before her attention was stolen by the plethora of files scattered across a dark mahogany desk towards the center of the room. She pranced over there, soundless as her sandaled feet made their way toward the desk to satisfy her curiosity.

She gleaned a couple of words: _Harmony Restoration Movement, Yu Dao, campaign, King Kuei…_

Names she barely recognized and—at least at the moment—were insignificant.

"First time wearing silk?"

"Oh!" she gasped, swiveling around. _Shit. _"Morning, Fire Lord," she said, composing herself.

She barely understood how he was awake, after having been out the entire night "getting a drink of water."

"I'd prefer that you stick with the job that you had originally come here to do, rather than snoop around elsewhere."

His declaration hit her at the wrong angle.

"To be fair, Lord Zuko, you had told me that as a guest of royalty your palace is 'completely open,'" she retorted quickly.

His words bit him back, and it showed briefly on his face. "Well…not _everything _is open," he revoked, muttering almost under his breath.

Suki almost snarled back, but she refrained herself, spotting Ty Lee passing by in the hallway. "Sorry then," she apologized briefly and took Ty Lee's appearance as an excuse for her to just walk out of the situation.

Ty Lee received her with a raised eyebrow. "What were you up to in there?" the other Kyoshi Warrior, who had just woken up, asked her as they walked down the corridor.

Suki brushed off the question. "Nothing much," she replied, her hand waving. "I was just checking out the place and got intercepted by Zuko."

Ty Lee nodded, expecting a bit more detail to the answer. When she didn't get it, she cheerfully suggested that Suki and her go to see the city to get some fireflakes.

And so the two of them did, and Suki was having a marvelous time, shoveling some of the crunchy spice into her mouth.

But then in the middle of her laugh, she spotted an older man giving her a scornful look, all the way down from the milk crate that he used as a seat with an empty cup in his hand and all his world's possessions wrapped in a black sack aside him.

She chocked mid-bite, an evanescent memory of the feel of silk on her shoulders passing.

**laterthatday**

Upon stepping into the dining room and noticing that Mai was sitting across from no one, Suki immediately ducked out of the place and firmly decided to find the Fire Lord, setting aside her own discouragement to do so—especially after being so harshly spoken to from the man earlier this morning.

Sheesh, what was the whole deal? It wasn't like she was sitting down at the desk and studying the files with a notepad in her other hand.

She spotted him in another room, head tilted over a lamp-lighted table, holding his head and biting down hard on a pen. Suki took a calming breath, watching him mark up a page, before she stepped into the room, making sure her entrance was audible.

Despite her obvious presence, he didn't respond, even as she was standing inches from his table.

"Fire Lord Zuko?"

He finally looked up. "Suki."

"You should join us for dinner."

He shook his head. "No time."

She paused, mentally exasperated, but then tried again. "Just this once."

He surprised her by agreeing and then getting up. Suki wasn't able to process her joy in being successful, as Zuko's strides were wide and unforgiving. She had to add an extra bounce in her steps to catch up to him.

Taking a moment to think her thoughts through, she apologized to him first. "I'm sorry about earlier today."

He dismissed her comment. "Have you been enjoying your time here so far?"

She was taken aback at his change of subject. "Uh yes, I went to see the rest of the capitol today."

"I know."

She gave him a look, but he explained without even a glance at her. "You smell like fireflakes," the firebender said, as a-matter-of-fact-ly.

Recovering, she replied, "Uh, I tried some earlier this morning."

"Do you have more?"

"Uh…yes?"

"Then as Fire Lord, I order you to give me the rest of your fireflakes," he demanded before a soft chuckle afterward indicated it was just a joke.

"I'm guessing you like fireflakes," Suki said dryly, tone unamused.

"More than life itself," he affirmed, then tilted his head a bit. "Actually, that might not be saying much."

Raising an eyebrow at the ironically emo-ness of the comment, she asked. "Well if you like them so much, just tell your palace chefs to make them for you. Then you'll have it all you want."

He wrinkled his nose. "They serve it baked. It's the street version, all greased and over-spiced, that I grew up on…and I haven't been outside of these walls in the longest time."

A small smile was perched on his face all throughout the remainder of Suki's conversation with him and even carried through the dinner, the Fire Lord frequently making bad jokes and acting completely normal. He seemed to be enjoying himself, and as relieved as Suki was to see the Fire Lord not depressed, she was even more worried at his sudden change of mood.

Mai didn't seem amused, and every time Zuko attempted to make eye contact with her, she denied him the gratification.

Somewhere between the rice and meat and the sweet dried fruit, he snapped.

"Damn it, Mai—what am I doing wrong?!"

The silence after that question was even more deadly than the silence that persisted throughout the dinner. Everyone around the table tensed up and not even a scratch of silverware could have been heard.

She didn't reply, continued slowly spooning soup into her mouth.

"I'm smiling for you! Is that enough?"

Her spoon dropped to the bowl, clanging hard against the porcelain. She pushed back away from the table and quickly walked out the door without a word.

"Mai!" Zuko stood up as well, reaching out a hand as though he could catch her. "Mai!" he repeated, louder and running after her.

The rest of them around the table attempted to return to eating, but found that they had lost their appetites.

**thatnight**

"Is Mai okay?"

Ty Lee didn't answer, and Suki decided that it was better to not pry.

The door between them opened up, and the Fire Lord stepped out, presumably from the middle of an unsatisfactory sleep. The two of them found themselves unable to say anything to him and watched him walk down the long corridor away from his room.

It had been five minutes since he had passed before Ty Lee let out a soft sigh and turned her eyes toward Suki.

"I don't know," she replied finally.

Suki turned her face down.

The two of them didn't talk for the next two hours, and by then the man that they were bodyguarding was heading back to his room.

"You should be getting rest, Fire Lord."

"That's okay—I should be fine," and he walked back into his room without any other regards.

For the remainder of the night, the two Kyoshi Warriors replaced their silence with worry instead.

**beforethesunrose**

Shift over, Suki spotted a cloaked figure walking in a direction away from the palace. Deciding to make sure that this suspicious person wasn't a threat to royalty, Suki had decided to delay her sleep for the time being.

She continued following the unnamed man toward the northern corner of the city. He turned to head towards a tall building, spiral-like. Since it was night, she didn't remember it too well from when she had taken a tour of the city in the daylight but she was relatively sure that this was the prison.

Suki gritted her teeth. She knew this mysterious person had to be investigated. What if there was some sort of a conspiracy to overthrow the—

The hooded man suddenly removed his outer cloak, and an all too familiar looking scar revealed itself.

Zuko?!

_Is this where you've been going at night all this time? _she asked him in her thoughts. Holding herself silent, she waited for the Fire Lord to slip through the slightly open doors of the prison.

What was he doing here? Why was he here? The questions rustled through her mind while she waited a couple more seconds to pass. Taking a couple more deep breaths, she quickly rushed over to the entrance of the prison and put her fingers into the small crack that was left between the doors, rank and acrid dungeon air seeping out.

She slipped through the doorway and quietly closed the double doors to the same position that she had found them in before turning around and waiting for her eyes to adjust to the darkness. Making sure her footsteps didn't echo on the stone floor, she made her way through the labyrinth before reaching a split.

Hoping that some sound would give her a hint to which direction Zuko had taken, she stilled her very breath.

A clink.

Her eyebrows narrowed. Porcelain?

She followed the sound through to the right, and soon the discordant voices that she had been hearing cleared up as she turned another corner.

There wasn't any doubt—it was Zuko's voice!

But who was he talking to?

Suki leaned in towards the voices, bringing herself right to the edge of being spotted by either Zuko or whoever he was talking to. She stopped herself from advancing forward—just another inch and she'd be discovered.

She really wanted to know who Zuko was talking to, especially what _criminal _Zuko was taking time to talk to…complete with tea, if her nose was accurate.

The Kyoshi Warrior dared herself to just take a quick glimpse…

The prisoner bore a strong resemblance to—Ozai?!

Pressing up against the wall and letting her heart calm, Suki tried to figure out what was going on.

She hadn't even known that Ozai was so close to them! She knew that Aang had taken away his bending, and she knew that Ozai's power had been stripped so that he was no longer a threat, but never would she have guessed that the living man was just a few blocks away from the palace!

And Zuko was talking to his father? What for? What ungodly reason did Zuko have to talk to the man? Was this what he had been doing all this time while he was out at night? Was this man who Zuko was losing sleep to?

Why was the Fire Lord even associating himself with the largest criminal of the entire world?

She tried to listen in to their conversation, but her mind was having a debate with itself, trying to figure out what made Zuko want to talk to his father.

Why? Why was he talking to _him?_ She couldn't simply ask the Fire Lord—then he'd know that she had been following him! Was Zuko going to be doing this again tomorrow night? Would she have the guts to stalk after him, listen in to their conversation? Did she even have a right?—was it a personal conversation? Was it about official business?

"Get out!" the older man's voice bellowed, and Suki almost fainted if it weren't for the second later that she realized—with the sound of a thrown cup and broken porcelain—that Ozai was not speaking to her, but to his son.

She looked in both directions. There was only one way out—she'd be caught if she didn't get a move on!

Quickly removing herself from the scene, she managed to get back a couple feet before she was interrupted by Ozai's voice.

"What I'm saying is this—there is no right or wrong apart from what you decide. Who you choose to defend deserves to be defended simply because you chose them."

She tried to make sense of what she was saying. Defend? Was there trouble going on that she had no idea about? Fighting, perhaps? How could she have not heard about this?

"You are the Fire Lord. What you choose, by definition, is right."

There was a painful silence that followed Ozai's sentence, and in that heavy tense air, Suki suddenly realized an ever greater danger.

Zuko was taking advice from his father?!

"No!" she heard him retort. "Right and wrong are bigger than me, or you, or even the Avatar! And I believe that the Avatar, the Earth King, and I can come closest to what's right by working together!"

Ozai didn't seem fazed. "I've heard rumors about this little meeting of yours."

Suki thought it curious that even she, so close to the Fire Lord, hadn't heard anything about arguments between the Earth and Fire Nation, while Ozai, locked all the way up in jail knew about what was going on. Even behind bars, the former Fire Lord seemed to know everything that was happening in the world.

"Do you think the Earth King, after being humiliated time and time again by our mighty nation and his own incompetence, will be reasonable? Do you think he'll treat the remaining Fire Nation colonials fairly? In an attempt to restore his own dignity, he'll send out his army to crush them...If you _truly_ are the Fire Lord, you will defend the Fire Nation citizens of Yu Dao ferociously! Not simply because they are your people, but because they are an expression of your _will_!"

Disagreeing, Zuko replied, "I'm going to wait, and my patience will be rewarded with a peaceful resolution for everyone! Even as we speak, the Avatar is—"

"The Avatar is an irrelevant relic of a bygone age! He wants to keep the world frozen in time by denying the inevitable victory of the strong over the weak!"

Suki couldn't help the small gasp that left her lips.

This sort of an influence _couldn't _possiblybe good for Zuko.

"Avatar Aang is my friend! More often than not, he's been on the side that's right!" Zuko argued. She felt the tension in his voice. "I trust him."

There was a stressful pause in their conversation before Ozai asked, "More than you trust yourself?"

And here, was another painful silence. Zuko could find nothing to defend himself with.

"You sicken me, Zuko. Leave my presence."

The Fire Lord erupted. "Who are you to talk to me this way?! Have you forgotten your current place in—"

"Leave! My! Presence!" the former Fire Lord demanded, punctuating each word.

Suki made up her mind. She had to leave. She had to leave _now_.

Her foot clobbered on a loose stone.

"Who's there?" Ozai boomed.

Covering her mouth to keep herself from screaming, she rushed down the corridor before she could be found out, not stopping until she reached her bed, where she shook until sunrise.

**thefollowingmorning**

She hadn't slept at all that night.

"Ty Lee…" Suki said, while pouring herself some tea and taking in what energy she could from the strong drink. "What ever happened with Azula?"

The other Kyoshi Warrior's eyes glazed over. "She's in a mental facility."

Suki's heart thudded with a sudden fear. She almost spit out her bitter drink. "Where? Here?"

"Not on the main island. She's out on one of the eastern islands—why?"

"Just curious," Suki replied, swallowing slowly.

**nightfall**

_He's manipulating him_, she surmised throughout the entire day. _I have to talk to Mai._

Zuko would listen to her…right?

Passing by her room, Suki quickly prepared herself the impending conversation, but heard soft whispers outside of Mai's room.

"I'm sure he meant well," wafted Ty Lee's voice.

"I know." And Mai sighed. "I know…but he can't just _pretend _that everything is going alright. I wasn't asking him to be happy with whatever shit he has to deal with, I was asking him to be honest with me!"

Realizing that standing outside of the room just listening to their conversation made her relive her eavesdropping on Zuko and Ozai, she decided to join the girls, sitting down on the floor next to them.

"Oh, Suki," Mai greeted, and Ty Lee gave her a tight smile.

"Did you get to talk with him afterwards?"

The raven-haired girl shook her head. "I was too angry."

"Well then, you should go explain to him!"

Mai clenched the fabric under her fists. "No," she declared. "If he can't even understand that then what difference is it going to make if I spell it out for him?"

"I'm sure he has a lot of things on his mind that he has to deal with," Suki interjected once the time was right.

"I know." Mai's eyes shot up to meet Suki's. "But he's not talking to anyone—no one knows what's going on. And if no one knows what's going on, no one can help him." She turned her head back down to the ground. "I wish I could help him. But I can't if he isn't letting himself be helped. And I feel useless."

"We understand," Ty Lee consoled her friend, while Suki held words at the tip of her tongue.

_Mai doesn't know about Ozai, does she?_

"But I really suggest that you talk to him to sort things out as soon as possible," Ty Lee continued. "If you guys keep up this silent treatment, everything's just going to turn out even worse than it did before. And he tried, right? He was trying to make you happy—"

"Is that enough for me?"

Ty Lee's eyebrows furrowed. "What?"

"_Is that enough for me? _That's what he said," Mai repeated, her jaw clenching. "Does it really take that much to just tell me what's troubling him? He doesn't want to bring me into this mess? Does he really think that I want to see him suffer through all that alone? I can't—"

"You have to talk to him," Suki said.

And then when the silence after her interruption grew too large, Suki admitted the truth.

"He's talking to his _father_?!"

**thedayafter**

_Zuko was always the special one._

Remembering this line from Ty Lee, she slowly approached the Fire Lord, who was sitting at his desk, head cradled in his left hand.

His golden eyes flickered up to greet her.

She almost stepped back, sure that he knew that she had been there when he was visiting Ozai.

"Suki," he acknowledged. Some warmth crossed through his eyes.

She caught her breath again—he didn't know. There wasn't any way that he knew, anyway. Why was she worrying about such a thing? If he had known that she had been listening in, he would have already confronted her. He couldn't have known that she—

"Do you want something?"

The Kyoshi Warrior almost stuttered. "Fireflakes. I picked some up while I was downtown." She handed the firebender a white paper bag full of crisps and spices.

She was out the door before she heard his thanks.

**thatnight**

He had been playing with the flames around his throne, extinguishing them once he realized there was someone else behind him.

She started first. "I know you've been secretly meeting with Ozai."

"Mai!" he exclaimed. And then her sentence hit him. "Who did you hear that from?"

From behind a podium, Suki's breath stopped.

"Does it matter?" Mai retorted. "Not from you."

It took Zuko a while to find his voice. "I know I keep screwing up. But, please…I…I love you, Mai."

"I know," she replied. "But lately I've realized that you love your secrets more. You'll have an easier time keeping them when you're alone."

"…what are you telling me?"

"Goodbye, Fire Lord."

Suki's eyes widened.

"Mai! Come back! I—I—I order you to _come back_!"

Suki bent over, struck with guilt. Fuck, she had actually made their relationship _worse _by meddling and interfering with everything! Seeing his agonized face, she rushed over, immediately getting down on her knees.

"This is my fault! I'm so sorry!" she blurted, cursing herself over and over again in her mind. "I…when I asked her to talk to you about your father, that wasn't quite what I had in mind!"

"Suki! But how did you know—"

She didn't let him finish, apologizing further. "I followed you. Sorry about that, too." She took a deep breath before continuing. "We just wanted to know what was going on, to see if we could help in some way. The Kyoshi Warriors are really worried about you, Zuko." And then she realized that she had been speaking in plural for something that she had done completely on her own—"_I'm _really worried about you."

Her hand reached up to his hand, but his hand flicked back when hearing someone else rush into the throne room.

"Fire Lord Zuko!" a military personnel greeted.

"General Mak."

"A message has arrived from the spies you sent to the Earth Kingdom!"

"You sent spies?!" she gasped, realizing that there was a lot more to Zuko's secrets than just his consulting his father!

"Your suspicions are confirmed. The Earth King's army is now marching towards Yu Dao!"

"Father…you were _right,_" Suki heard him say under his breath. "Thank you, General Mak. Please prepare a fleet to go to Yu Dao immediately. We will leave tomorrow morning at daybreak."

Stunned, Suki exclaimed, "You can't do this—you haven't thought this completely through! What are you going to do once you're in Yu Dao? Start a full-on war?!"

Zuko's eyes—no longer soft—returned to Suki.

"Leave."

She was unable to sleep that night.

**atdaybreak**

He was surprised that she appeared on one of the ships leaving.

"I'm your personal bodyguard," she explained briefly.

The Fire Lord didn't reply.

"Did you even tell Mai?"

"Mai doesn't care anymore," he spat back. "Don't you remember?"

* * *

**Thanks for reading, don't forget to leave a review behind!—or I'll make sure Zuko knows that he can regain his honor by chasing after you!**

**thir13enth**


End file.
